Approximately 10% of patients who are admitted to hospitals acquire an infection while in the hospital. These infections are typically more serious due to problems with antibiotic resistant strains. These infections not only dramatically increase the cost of care, but more importantly are a cause of substantial morbidity and mortality. The most common method for the spread of nosocomial infections is from direct contact with health care providers' hands. As a result, the CDC has issued recommendations that healthcare providers wash their hands or use an instant hand sanitizer before and after all patient contacts.
At the present time nearly all hospitals have installed instant hand sanitizer dispensers in all patient rooms and strategically placed signs reminding health care workers to use the dispensers. Despite this improvement, there is at best 50% compliance among health care workers. In most cases the providers is distracted with other responsibilities and simply forgets.
Although there are devices designed to monitor sanitization compliance, these devices tend to be impractical in hospital settings, are prohibitively expensive to use on a large scale, and/or would require substantial renovation to implement.